Apparently, since Mary Magdalene and friends were up early on Easter Sunday and Jesus was up even earlier to get out of the tomb before they showed up, Neil and I needed to get up early, too. I got tired of sleeping at about 5:00 this morning, and while I was staring at the ceiling Neil let me know he was up and active, too. So we got up and have been working on some up-coming blog posts about our house and about Google applications while we eat our raisin bran.
Neil has been very active recently. I actually had to ask him to settle down for bed the other night. I haven't had to do that for months. Of course, I only had to ask once this time and he calmed down right away. After my last post, I decided to try playing "pat-pat" with him again to see if he was really participating or if it was a fluke. I don't think it was a fluke. I would pat my belly three times, saying "pat, pat, pat" and wait for a few seconds until he patted me back, normally two pats in return. "Patting" is a bit unusual for him. Most of the time when he moves he rolls or wiggles rather than kicking and punching. And I pat him all the time without his patting back. But when I started saying "pat" when I patted my belly, we traded pats for over half an hour. I paused for a little while to make sure that I wasn't mistaking hiccups for intentional movements, especially since he was patting the same spot over and over, and he didn't have hiccups. After a while, I started getting tired of the game and stopped patting. But he kept patting and waiting, patting and waiting until I started playing again and played until bedtime. I tried it again last night and he wasn't interested. Ooh! I just tried it again, and he started playing for a little while. If Neil will play with me again, I'll get Matt involved. I told Matt it's hard to believe there's something wrong with a baby who can play games before birth. I've read that babies can learn and remember things before birth, so I've been trying to figure out how to test his memory of "pat-pat" after he's born. He's kind of my little guinea pig for testing child development concepts. I can't wait to test some of the weird infant instinctual movements!
Of course, I think my child is remarkable, but I sometimes forget just how special he is. I've been reminded of how unusual it is for unborn babies to have favorite foods when I've talked to new people recently. And health professionals are always impressed when I tell them he doesn't keep me up at night because I ask him to settle down at bedtime. Perhaps it's all coincidence--love of peanuts, cooperation when asked, playing pat-pat--but this much coincidence looks an awful lot like unique personality.
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